Researchers measuring the widening generation gap in Britain knew there was a problem with public perceptions of young people.

LONDON–Researchers measuring the widening generation gap in Britain knew there was a problem with public perceptions of young people.

But no one was quite prepared for the raw numbers unveiled in a new survey showing more than half of adult Britons hold youth in contempt as an age group run amok.

The poll, conducted by YouGov on behalf of the children's charity Barnardos, showed that 54 per cent of British grown-ups think the nation's youth are beginning to "behave like animals."

Part of the problem could be attributed to the rise over the past decade of binge drinking among young people.

Slightly less than half, meanwhile, see today's youth as an increasing danger to themselves and adults, while 43 per cent of adults are sufficiently alarmed that they agree something should be done to protect them from young people.

The data suggests a gap of unprecedented width, even for a nation that gave the world successive generations of youth rebellion, from mods and rockers to hardcore punk.

But officials with Barnardos and other British children's advocacy experts interpret the numbers as another sign of unjustified demonization of the young (anyone younger than 18, but mostly teens) that now is pervasive in British life.

"People in Britain now routinely refer to children as `feral,' `vermin' and as `infecting our streets.' The shock here is that people show such intolerance toward all young people, when in fact only a very small number are involved in anti-social behaviour," said Pam Hibbert, Barnardos' associate policy director.

"The truth is that young people in Britain are responsible for 12 per cent of crime. But the public overestimate that by a factor of four, according to the recent British Crime Survey, with people believing the young commit half of all crime. So a major part of the problem here is a question of perception."

Martyn Lewis, a former BBC broadcaster and founder of the children's charity YouthNet, lays the vast majority of the blame at the feet of Britain's frothing press corps for what he calls "an unremitting emphasis on negative stories involving young people that has ensured a culture of fear.

"The coverage of muggings, vandalism, joyriders and now the knife crime that has made headlines over the last year has added up to an almost instinctive failure of journalism," said Lewis.

"There is rarely any context or balance. And it has been so out of kilter for so long that now you have older people thinking every single child is a threat and young people across the board feeling seriously misrepresented."

Culture watchers suggest the last time this gap happened was in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when recession and unemployment coalesced in the No Future punk era.

Sophie Manning, 21, is one young Briton involved in pushing back against those perceptions. An English major at University College London, Manning is also a veteran volunteer with the Respect campaign, an online initiative to join up young and old alike in a conversation about the generation gap.

"The general feeling among young people is that we are being talked about but not listened to," she said.

"But rather than just haranguing about the failure to engage with young people, what we've started to do is admit this is reciprocal. We, as young people, need to be more involved," Manning said.

"The Respect campaign is aimed at harnessing the power of the digital young, to provide them with a space to meet to be heard."

Barbara Rayment, director of children's agency umbrella group YouthAccess, likened coverage of youth crime issues in Britain as "the modern-day equivalent of public flogging.

"It is a very depressing picture and it leaves Britain in a very strange place today. Even if you discount how the press whips up the furor over the young, even if you accept that young people are that bad – which they are not – it is still complete nonsense," said Rayment.

"Because either way, these kids didn't just fall flat out of the sky and land on our doorsteps. We've all raised them. We are all, as a society, collectively responsible for where we are today."

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